What can put you off a game?

[Donald Trump]

If you do not understand the title then you are mentile.
In this thread you say what puts you off games.
You will probably use an example, you don't have to, but I think you will.

One of things that will puts me off is very boring sections.
For Example, Kingdom Hearts 2. It is a game that I like a lot, however I was often put off replaying it because the very first part of the game is so boring.
Eventually I did it and created an additional saved game so that I would not have to replay all that boring stuff at the beginning.

 

[Squid]

One of things that will puts me off is very boring sections.
For Example, Kingdom Hearts 2. It is a game that I like a lot, however I was often put off replaying it because the very first part of the game is so boring.
Eventually I did it and created an additional saved game so that I would not have to replay all that boring stuff at the beginning.

Boring bits like this put me off too. I have not replayed KH2 because of that beginning bit, I hate it a lot but the rest of the game is so good. That is a very good idea making a save right after the end of that horrible start bit. Perhaps I will do that one day if I can bring myself to pick it back up.

Scary bits also put me off a game.
When I played Sonic adventure Battle 2 I very much enjoyed it but then I got to one of Knuckles levels where ghosts keep jumping out of the floor at you and it makes the controller rumble. I could not play any more because I'd have a heart attack every 2 minutes from it.
I did eventually finish that game though.

Stupid plot twist
I don't like when a game starts out really cool and the plot is looking great and then suddenly it goes a bit stupid and in a completely different direction to how you thought it would. I can't think of a proper example... I guess currently Resistance 3 is going that way for me, first it was about monsters and killing them, now you got to kill people too... it makes no sense and is kind of off putting.

Repetition
FFXIII is a good example of Repetition being boring and off putting, I probably don't need to say more than that.

Lack of Save points
In RPGs I like to save as often as possible otherwise I get very stressed out if I do not have save points around me I often find I wont go back and do long annoying dungeons and end up giving up on the game. I don't have time to just sit there and continue to play. I play a bit, save then come back later.

The end.

 

[Will Graham]

The boring bits at the start of the game are always a killer as my pals said, there are few things worse, especially when it involves an unskippable tutorial.

I find it difficult to play really old games, the graphics are just too shit and ugly, I am a spoiled brat who only wants ice cream I guess. This excludes games I played when I was younger and they were still new and cutting edge

The back of the box is really off putting on almost every game, they're full of shitty generic taglines like, "what will you fight for" or some other banal dross. Or some shit about 'explosive multiplayer action' and that kind of thing. I just really hate that, the blurbs are always really badly written too

 

[Linnaete]

If the game decides that holding my hands for several hours is a good idea. This can be a whole unavoidable tutorial section that introduces you to the gameplay mechanics, or a long incorporated first section that does the same job so slowly that the good first 5-6 hours (or even more, if you're a certain Final Fantasy game that I'm not going to mention!) feels like an uninvolved snoozefest, while the player is twiddling their thumbs wondering when the real gameplay is going to come, if at all, at this rate.

I can handle slow introductions, but not if several hours later I feel like I'm still lingering about in some introductory section of the game doing the most basic and banal things over and over again. And it doesn't help if a game is constantly holding my hand, as if convinced that I'm a clueless Wii Fit player who is new to town.

A terrible cast of characters is also off-putting. It's partially the reason why I've not touched Star Ocean 4 for a while. Bar one or two who I've grown particularly fond of, most of the cast is just unbearably bad - the main lead has deteriorated from someone I wasn't fond of to someone so excruciatingly bad that I seriously wondered why the hell I was still playing at that point.

Terrible controls is another thing. If I'm going to play your game, and if I'm going to enjoy it, then at least make the experience somewhat fun, or at least tolerable. Having clunky controls that makes your character move like they've broken their legs and platforming around like a drunkard doesn't exactly constitute as intuitive gameplay or fun.

I can probably think of more later on, but this is all I have now.

 

[Praeliator]

Easy playthrough despite playing on the hard difficulty:

C'mon! When I play a game on hard mode I expect it to be hard. Kingdom Hearts 2 is a good example of this. I played KH2 on Proud Mode and I breezed through the game especially versing Sephiroth, he was hard to defeat in KH1 but in KH2, well...he's nothing compared to KH1 Sephiroth.

Rubberband A.I:

Seriously, this is common in older games, especially older racing games such as F-Zero X. I'm like in first place near the finish line and all of the sudden someone races past me resulting in me coming 2nd or lower.

 

[Lirael]

A game that's too difficult... Perhaps the battle system is too complex or there are too few save points... Either way, I hate it when you keep on dying again and again and/or a level takes 4 hours to complete due to difficulty. I don't think I could maintain an interest in a game like Dark Souls. Too much grinding to get to a certain point. And shooters that throw lots of tough enemies at you at once in a small space are an absolute PAIN!

A game that's too easy. This sort of game becomes a bit boring. However, if it has a good story, I'll quite happily rush through the game to watch and experience it!

A turn-based battle system that's too slow. Grandia II is an example of this. I hear that the story is excellent, but I really can't be bothered to play through it because the movement in battle and pace of each battle is SO SLOW! It's a snail pace. Final Fantasy VII and IX were about as slow as I could handle.

A game that's scary... I haven't really played any of these supposed 'scary' games, partly because they don't interest me, and partly because I hate being scared and always over-react to these things.

 

[Dionysos]

A combination of things really...

I wouldn't want to play a game with boring characters either in appearance or personality. I didn't like inFamous much, for example, as the main character looks pretty much like any male fragrance advert you see. I don't want advert or billboard characters.

If a character is aesthetically pleasing for whatever reason (perhaps the appearance, or some concept about the character that is very interesting - i.e, but as a poor example, Sazh's afro chocobo), then I might forgive a lack of original (does such a thing exist?) or interesting personality as the appearance alone might colour that character in.

Another thing I would not like is a game that is too difficult or too easy. I do not like a game that would take 100+ deaths, broken windows, and at least one contemplation of suicide to complete. I want a game to still be fun without having to spend a hundred thousand hours just replaying the same difficult section over and over again. I also do not want to be insulted by the game being too easy. I do not want a very hard game, but I also do not want to be regarded as a toddler. I'd like to figure things out on my own and such.

Related to that last point, I do not like unneeded tutorials... Many games give them these days. It is usually self-explanatory that certain buttons do certain things, and that you can jump over ledges and such. I hate it when you get to a certain point and then it breaks from the gameplay to do short (but longer than needed) cutscenes explaining how there happens to be a gap in the floor which you would need to jump over. I also hate it when they then feel that ledges that can be grabbed onto need to be highlighted red. I'd much rather the place look more natural and I can jump around and experiment, so it gives the illusion of freedom.

Other things I'd dislike would be terrible music, like overused random guitar without a tune. But that is secondary.

All of that said, I don't think I'd completely shun a game for these points. There might be other factors in the game that allow me to enjoy it. Sometimes it is just too much for me to really enjoy a game much though, but I'd never go as far as to say that it made me hate the game in a violent and unforgiving sense.

 

[Rey]

Something that does not appeal to me, like a shite trailer with crappy characters, yet they still make it look good. I hate trailers that try and make games look good when in fact the story is absolutely horrendous and so is everything else. This is what happens with mostly an JRPG these days. If I see fan service, and that is all that is truly being worked on, I will have no interest. Another thing that annoys the hell out of me are people who blurt out spoilers. This is what puts me off ANY game, even if I do want it so badly. I can trust certain people not to spoil anything, but in this world, some guys/girls will commit "spoiler orgasm" Yes, it means they loved the ending so much and just have to tell you all the juicy details. Not just the ending, but mostly everything. I also hate it when people look at spoilers for no apparent reason. A cast of characters that want to make me rip my hair out, will put me off a game. Why? Well, I can not stand certain characters for one, and for two they are just useless.

Terrible gameplay that bores the absolute daylights out of me. Cross Edge for example. That game was horrendous, and the battle system was terrible. I never played again after 10 mins. That game put me off so bad, that it was not even funny. All You ever did in the beginning is mash the square button. This can be associated with terrible controls if anything.

Another thing that will put me off a game is a really slow story. I love long stories, but if the game is all about the main character having feelings for another character, or how is he going to stop something, but never quite does show it or do it after 70 hours of the game, then we have a problem. Yes, I am talking about a game that goes really off the story and focuses on other stupid aspects. Kind alike forced shitty side quests.

There is bound to be a lot more. This is what annoys me most though.

 

[Bambi]

if i cant get used to the controls ...like fairly fast, then il put it down and never look at it again (resident evil, im looking at you)

 

[Richard B Riddick]

Lack of originality Recycled plots, characters, battle systems & other genre norms is a bit boring, yeh.

Lack of gameplay Focusing on CGI, graphics and art and ignoring development of plot, character development, gameplay and other important aspects is boring, yeh.

Excessive random battles It would be nice if game designers could create a 40 hour RPG without throwing a number of pointless battles in to reach their quota.

Excessive lvling Follows the above^.

Needlessly complex brute force mazes A maze that is clever and requires intelligence to solve is more fun to me than a maze that takes up your time needlessly or uses cheap methods to make it difficult to solve.

Excess of asian-ness A lot of recent final fantasy and RPG games have mainstream plots & stereotypes (archetypes) straight out of an asian soap opera. It has a tendency to be boring as soap operas are similar to movies and series where producers use a formulaic approach -- which can become repetitive and boring.

 

[Linnaete]

Just to add in a few things:

Atrocious voice acting can potentially throw me off a game. Either the voice actor(s) and actress(es) just annoy the ever loving crap out of me, or the publishers just weren't trying, especially in this latter case if it's a quick rush job to get this in English from the Japanese version. Now, I said it can potentially throw me off, but it oughtn't to really, if I can just mute the damn bugger or if it's a Japanese game, hope there's the option to use the Japanese voices. But I really shouldn't have to do either.

Now, let's move on to one big thing that bugs me. Terrible writing, and terrible plots in general. This is damning when the game I am playing has to have a solid plot as one of its core pillars, and fails to deliver that (so this won't matter to something like Gran Turismo or hell, even Call of Duty obviously...). How damning would it have been if an Uncharted game has a rubbish plot with holes so big you can fly a Boering through? Sure, the gameplay may still be as fun as hell, but not enjoying the storyline would definitely suck. Then there's the JRPG genre. Yes I know, a lot of JRPGs have complete crap for stories, not helped by the fact that they constantly rely on overused clichés as predictable as guessing that tomorrow is the 15th of November. But at least a good number of them do have good plots. Shame about those that have glaring holes, deus ex machinas, retconnings, and even complete contradictions. Then there are the games that don't even try with their stories like White Knight Chronicles from what I've heard, a game that seemingly tries to parody the Mario games' stories.

 

[Ayen]

Not being able to save unless I unlock the bonus stage of a level can be a little off-putting for me. That and cameras that don't move behind you properly so you can see what you're doing. The Matrix games where you play as Neo is a very good example of the latter, that camera was just all over the place...

 

[harunashiro]

It depends on the combination but, what would put me off first is terrible voice acting and horrid gameplay.


If everything else is good except the voice acting, I literally give the game a week to grow on me and suffer through the entire thing (example: "WET" --> Xbox 360)

 

[Rydia]

Long cutscenes to the point that the game feels more like a movie and not a game.

Game play that tries to be innovative but ends up being a pain in the ass. Bad controls in general.

DLC that is released the day the game is released. Put that in the original release. DLC in general, especially if the content is important to the overall game.

 

[L]

I am more of a core gameplay kind of gamer and do not really care about the game's story or voice actors as long as they aren't as terrible as freddy.

A really terrible user interface can put me off. bits of skyrim and dragon age: origins immediately come to mind. I get easily frustrated when I can't find my things or play a game very effectively.

 

[Sir Fratley]

~Horrible language translation or giving you English subtitles while everything is spoken in Japanese when the game isn't even taking place in Japan. The exception to this is the Okami series which is awesome and is supposed to be taking place in Japan.

~Bland storyline or story that's just -there- for maybe 10% of the game while the rest of the game is hack & slash or run & gun.

~Bad voice acting. Myself being an actor kind of raises my expectations though.

~Horrible controls or lagged input. If I have to swing a sword, it should not take several seconds while I'm getting hammered before the character decides to actually attack.

~Broken Online features. This is aimed primarily at Dark Souls. P2P is the worst kind of server to use for a game like this firstly. Dedicated servers would be much better and allow for friends to play co-op like they did in Demons' Souls. Also, when people can backstab you without even being behind you, something's wrong. And it should not take 3 hours to try and summon a phantom, all the while being plagued by 'Summoning Failed'.

~Games that look and feel like they are made just to be milked, as well as games that use the same content over and over again. Dragon Age 2 is an example of the later. All of the dungeons are the same dungeon, just with different routes blocked off dependent on quests. And all of the dungeon graphics look the same!

~Forced mini-games. I hate these with a passion! Just let me kill the boss without a fricking horse and pony game of hit the button sequence and if you miss even once, you die. *Breaks God of War*

 

[Amabdaan]

Poor programming that results in me smashing my controller. If you have to jump to a ledge and you just fall through it, even though you can see that u did land on it or when ur character dosent respond when u want him/her/it to do something, like it's 1½ sec delayed.

Also poor AI intelligence, where players (in sports games) run out of bounds for no reason at all, even in superstar difficulty

Edit:
Bad voice acting. and when talking and movement of lips r out of synq.